Hey Hey It's Saturday to get at least 20 more episodes

NINE chief executive David Gyngell has signed a deal with Daryl Somers for at least 20 new episodes of the variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday, slated for Wednesday nights next year.

The bigger than expected package of Hey Hey specials is one of the highlights of Nine's 2010 schedule that was unveiled last week at a series of functions for advertisers.

Originally conceived as eight and 10 specials, Nine is clearly hoping to repeat this year's success of Hey Hey in the 2010 schedule by maximising the number of shows.

"GO is the new Ten and Nine is the old Nine," Mr Gyngell said, underlining the importance of the multi-channels next year, the first full year of the new suite of digital free-to-air multichannels.

Nine announced it would launch a third channel in the new year, as will Ten and Seven, taking to 15 the number of free-to-air channels in 2010.

Mr Gyngell was upbeat about the performance of GO, targeted at the under-40s, especially since it made history by beating Ten's primary channel offering, the US version of Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader, with an episode of the game show Wipeout.

To meet this reality, Nine has employed a complementary sales strategy, selling advertising packages for both channels as well as programming so one channel does not erode the other's audience. "GO has given us a unique opportunity to strategically extend audiences and attract an all-new younger audience to build our demographic profile," Mr Gyngell told a Melbourne audience, which included influential media buyer Harold Mitchell. "It's a strategy that provides certainty to advertisers with more targeted choice that will continue to provide audience growth in 2010. We aim to become even more competitive, and combine Nine's experience with youthful vigour and take the network to No 1."

The network is, of course, still second to Seven, which consistently has a bigger slate of top-rating local productions, including hit dramas Packed to the Rafters and City Homicide.

But Nine is surprisingly close to Seven, given it props up its schedule with cheaper fare such as repeats of Two and a Half Men and recycled clips show 20 to 1. Nine executives say privately they believe Nine spent about $100 million less than Seven this year on programming. Leading Nine's schedule in 2010 is the latest series in the Underbelly franchise, The Golden Mile, which would air on Sunday nights, and cult motoring shows Top Gear UK and Top Gear Australia, which Mr Gyngell worked hard to steal from their traditional home on SBS.

The most interesting new show is a factual series about the Australian Federal Police, AFP, which Andrew Denton's company Zapruder's Other Films has been working on for two years. If it's as good as Border Security, Nine could have a hit factual show on its hands to rival Seven's top-rating line-up.